Hackney Marshes

A photo essay from London's famed amateur leagues

By Simon Di Principe

1st June 2017

The idea behind the pictures for my book Grass Roots was capturing the many faces and cultures who play football on Hackney Marshes every Sunday. The project took place over a full season which runs for about 9 months, and I was down there every Sunday - sunshine, rain or snow.

My father immigrated to London from Italy when he was 18 and played on the Marshes for the most successful team in the history of the Hackney and Leyton Football League called MG Sports (Mancini Garibaldi). The league has been going for 70 years now.

Kind of like a Panini sticker album, what makes London great for me is the many cultures we have in the city, and it was important to me to capture that.